Abstract
Mara Miller examines the ongoing need for beauty in twenty-first century Japan, which has impacted global arts and aesthetics through a variety of traditional, modern and post-modern types of beauty. She shows that in addressing the concerns of their hypermodern, secular context, contemporary Japanese artists commonly use pre-modern techniques, aesthetics, and practices, invoking traditional religious forces in the process. Miller terms this phenomenon “the radical traditional” and itemizes its various manifestations and the traditional aesthetic values it exemplifies. She suggests that the paradox of the radical traditional—return to the ancient to resolve post-modern issues—is partially resolved by consideration of the centrality of beautiful Japanese physical environments and by the aesthetic appreciation of the natural world on which Japanese art in general is premised. Creating art that enhances appreciation of the natural world, Japanese artists draw emotionally evocative attention to the contexts audiences today share with predecessors, at the same time addressing the contemporary concerns over the future direction of our world.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
I use the plural to refer to the various Japanese “categorical aesthetics”; for an explanation, see Miller 2010. These categories also include other types of positive aesthetics with little or no relation to beauty, ignored in this chapter. The term “aesthetics” is generally translated bigaku; this is, however, a late nineteenth-century neologism to accommodate Western philosophy.
- 2.
I would like to thank my friend, philosopher Dr. Kristin Pforbath, for reminding me of Harries’s discussion of this issue and for a provocative conversation about it.
- 3.
Throughout this paper when I use the term “arts” or “art” (bijutsu or geijutsu) I am talking about all the arts—visual, performing, literary, and even martial arts, and specifically crafts, which in Japan have been of exceptionally high beauty.
- 4.
Official support includes various components of the Japanese government as well as private (and government-subsidized) industry. Government support has included the imperial court, which has continuously sponsored types of performance dating back a millennium or more; the agency supporting the photography of ancient Buddhist temples and shrines and its publication; the support of school children’s field trips to sites such as the Temple of the Golden Pavilion, etc.
- 5.
The reasons for this difficulty are complex: (1) the original religion, later called Shinto (the “Way of the Gods”), was originally fully integrated into daily life—and continues to be, for many, to this day; (2) what is meant by “religion” in Indo-European languages barely applies to some of the Japanese religions, in that (a) there is often no insistence on either creed or belief, making it hard for people to distinguish between religious and other kinds of thoughts, (b) there is little competition between the various religions, whose tenets often overlap and whose boundaries are often obscured, and (c) there may be no sense of deity; (3) historically, the government declared Shinto not a religion (for political purposes—so as to be able to require Shinto participation while still championing the Western ideal of “freedom of religion;” (4) Buddhism (imported from Korea and China) and Shinto underwent at least two periods of deliberate fusion, while Buddhism itself came to be deeply integrated with Confucianism and Daoism in China in the so-called “Song (Dynasty) synthesis, so that forms of Buddhism brought to Japan later often were integrated with these two religions/philosophies as well (which had also been imported in their earlier, pre-synthetic forms). In addition, many Japanese people simultaneously belong (in one way or another—that is, through practice, prayer, belief, or registry with a temple or shrine) to more than one religion—even while disavowing being religious (which they may do even while evidencing participation), which disavowal is facilitated by the government’s disavowal.
- 6.
Given the complex tasks performed by religion in its various guises, this paper ignores all except those that are related to beauty and to the intertwining of the traditional and the modern in art and society.
- 7.
This nurturance-seeking, known as amae and amaeru (noun and verb forms), is recognized by social scientists as one of the most deep-seated Japanese values; its relevance vis-à-vis ancestors in contemporary religious practice is attested by Reader and Tanabe (1998).
- 8.
For twentieth-century Japanese the family name (first in Japan), is given last, following Western usage.
- 9.
Senju does not hesitate to update his medium and manner, however, when the climate for an installation, cannot accommodate the Japanese materials. This information is based on conversations with the artist regarding his installation at Shofuso Japanese House and Garden, Philadelphia, and at Kyoto University of Art and Design, Kyoto, in 2007.
- 10.
This is based on a presentation on junihitoe, the twelve-layer kimono worn by court ladies, by a member of the Imperial Household Agency responsible for them, given at the Japan Society in New York City.
- 11.
For fuller examination of the Marukis’ work see Dower and Junkerman 1985.
- 12.
For a recognition of the general relevance of Genji and An Account of My Hut to modern literature, see Washburn (1995).
- 13.
An earlier version of the argument about Barefoot Gen was read to the Center for Japanese Studies at the University of Hawaii at Manoa in September 2011; I would like to thank listeners for their insights and questions. Articles based on that talk, “Making Historic Terror Tolerable to Children: Barefoot Gen and Grave of the Fireflies” (Miller under review and “Reinventing Values: Aesthetics as Philosophical Exploration of Self, Subject, and Moral Agency in Kawabata’s The Sound of the Mountain” (Miller 2015) analyze the uses of traditional aesthetics for presenting nuclear horror and moral responses to it.
- 14.
University of Hawaii at Manoa, performance sponsored by the East Asian Languages and LIteratures Department, spring 2015. Translation by Robert Huey.
- 15.
Unless otherwise specified, definitions in this section come from Miner et al. 1985.
- 16.
Miner et al. (1985) is an excellent introduction to the terms especially in literary practice.
- 17.
- 18.
Regrettably I had not yet read James O. Young’s study, Art and Knowledge (Young 2001), when I wrote that article. Young argues that most of those who believe art has little or no cognitive value believe that to have such value, it must contribute to knowledge in similar ways to science, but that in fact, “although both art and science can contribute to our knowledge, they do so in radically different ways” (65).
- 19.
Kodo’s official website. The paragraphs have been rearranged to reflect chronological order.
References
Carter, Robert E. 2008. The Japanese arts and self-cultivation. Albany: SUNY Press.
Chambers, Kristin. 2003. Nara: Nothing ever happens. Exhibition catalogue. Philadelphia: MOCA (Museum of Contemporary Art).
Coomaraswamy, Ananda K. 1943. “Samvega: Aesthetic Shock.” Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies 7, 174–79. Republished in Traditional Art and Symbolism, edited by Roger Lipsey, 179–83. Princeton: Bollingen Series, 1977.
Dower, John W. and John Junkerman, eds. 1985. The Hiroshima murals: The art of Iri Maruki and Toshi Maruki. Tokyo: Kodansha International.
Dower, John W. 1993. Japan in war and peace: Selected essays. New York: New York Press.
Earle, Joe. 2005. Contemporary clay: Japanese ceramics for the new century. Boston: MFA Publications.
Enchi, Fumiko. 1983. Masks. Transl. Juliet Winters Carpenter. New York: Vintage Books.
Fischer, Felice. 2008. The art of Japanese craft: 1875 to the present. In Philadelphia Museum of art bulletin. Philadelphia: Philadelphia Museum of Art.
Goto, Seiko, and Takahiro Naka. 2015. Japanese gardens: Symbolism and design. New York: Routledge.
Harries, Karsten. 1979. The meaning of modern art. Evanston: Northwestern University Press.
Kamo no Chomei. 1972. The ten foot square hut and tales of Heike. Trans. A.L. Sadler. Charles E. Tuttle Company: Tokyo.
Kamo no Chomei. 1996. Hojoki: Visions of a Torn World. Trans. Yasuhiko Moriguchi and David Jenkins. Berkeley: Stone Bridge Press, 1996.
Kaneko, Jun and Xavier Toubes. 1996. Jun Kaneko: Dutch Series—Between Light and Shadow (exhibition catalogue). The Netherlands: Sg’s-Hertogenboch.
Kawabata Yasunari. 1968. “Japan the beautiful and myself,” Nobel Address, December 12. http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/1968/kawabata-lecture.html
Kawabata Yasunari. 1970. The sound of the Mountain (Yama no Oto). Trans. Edward Seidensticker. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1970.
Kawabata Yasunari. 1980–1983. Kawabata Yasunari Zenshuu (Collected works of Kawabata Yasunari) 35 vols; vol. XXXIII. Tokyo: Shinchousha.
Keene, Donald. 1984. Dawn to the West: Japanese literature in the modern era: Fiction. New York: Henry Holt & Co.
Kodo. Official website, http://www.kodo.or.jp/general/village_en.html. Accessed 24 Nov 2015.
Lifton, Robert J. 1967. Death in life: Survivors of Hiroshima. New York: Random House.
Maruki Gallery, 1972, 2004. Maruki gallery for the Hiroshima panels. http://www.aya.or.jp/~marukimsn/english/indexE.htm
Marvin, Stephen E. 2010. Heaven has a face—So does hell: The art of the Noh Mask. Warren: Floating World Editions.
Meli, Mark. 2002. Motoori Norinaga’s hermeneutics of mono no aware: The link between ideal and tradition. In Japanese hermeneutics: Current debates on aesthetics and interpretation, ed. Michael F. Marra, 60–75. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press.
Miller, Mara. 1993. The garden as an art. Albany: SUNY Press.
Miller, Mara. 2004. Four approaches to emotion in Japanese visual arts. In Emotion in Asia, ed. Santangelo Paolo, 265–313. Naples: Universita degli Studi di Napoli L’Orientale.
Miller, Mara. 2012. Genji’s gardens: From symbolism to personal expression and emotion: Gardens and garden design in The Tale of Genji. In States of mind in Asia, ed. Paolo Santangelo and Giusi Tamburello, 105–141. Florence: Olschki.
Miller, Mara. 2010. “Japanese aesthetics.” In The Oxford handbook of World philosophy.
Miller, Mara. 2014a. “’A matter of life and death:’ Kawabata on the value of art after the atomic bombings.” Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, 74/2, 261–275.
Miller, Mara. 2014b. “’I let the piece sing its own stories:’ Post-Modern Artistic Inspiration,” Sztuka i Filozofia (Studies in Philosophy), special issue on inspiration, 45 (winter), 7–31.
Miller, Mara. 2014c. Review of Stephen E. Marvin’s Heaven has a face, so does hell: The art of the Noh mask, Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, 72/1, 176–179.
Miller, Mara. 2014d. Review of Alan Tansman’s The aesthetics of Japanese fascism, for Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, 73/2, 218–222.
Miller, Mara. 2015. “Reinventing values: Aesthetics as philosophical exploration of self, subject, and moral agency in Kawabata’s The sound of the mountain.” Philosophy and Literature, 39/1A, Special Issue: Ethical Criticism in Practice, A122–A141.
Miller, Mara, and Yamasaki Koji. 2016. Chapter 23: Japanese and ainu aesthetics and philosophy of art. In Oxford handbook of Japanese philosophy, ed. Davis Bret. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Miller, Mara. in press. “Re-creating history and memory: The visual and visceral records,” Hiroshima, Nagasaki and memory, ed. Kenya Davis-Hayes and Roger Chapman.
Miller, Mara. under review. Making historic terror tolerable to children: Barefoot Gen and Grave of the Fireflies.
Miner, Earl, Hiroko Odagiri, and Robert E. Morrell. 1985. The Princeton companion to classical Japanese literature. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Munroe, Alexandra. 1994. Japanese art after 1945: Scream against the sky. New York: Harry N. Abrams, in association with the Yokohama Museum of Art, the Japan Foundation, the Guggenheim Museum, and San Francisco Museum of Art.
Munroe, Alexandra, and Jon Hendricks. 2000. Yes: Yoko Ono. New York: Japan Society and Harry N. Abrams.
Murasaki Shikibu. 1970. The tale of Genji (Kyoto, 1010–1020); translated by Edward Seidensticker. New York: Knopf, 1970.
Nakazawa, Keiji. 1973–4. Barefoot Gen. Shueisha: Chuokoron-shinsha.
O’Neal, Halle. 2015. Performing the jeweled Pagoda Mandalas: Relics, Reliquaries, and a realm of text. The Art Bulletin: A Quarterly Published by the College Art Association 97(3): 279–300.
Okuyama, Yoshiko. 2015. Japanese mythology in film: A semiotic approach to reading Japanese film and anime. Idaho Falls: Lexington Books.
Reader, Ian. 1991. Religion in contemporary Japan. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press.
Reader, Ian, and George J. Tanabe Jr. 1998. Practically religious: Worldly benefits and the common religion of Japan. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press.
Saito, Yuriko. 1985. The Japanese appreciation of nature. In Worldviews, religion, and the environment, ed. R.C. Foltz. Belmont: Wadsworth.
Saito, Yuriko. 2005. The Aesthetics of Weather. In The aesthetics of everyday life, ed. Light Andrew and Jonathan M. Smith. New York: Columbia University Press.
Schutz, Alfred. 1973. The structures of the life-world. Translated Richard M. Zaner and H. Tristram Engelhardt, Jr. Evanston: Northwestern University Press.
Scruton, Roger. 2009. Beauty: A very short introduction. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Sei Shonagon. c. 1000; 1967, 2016. The Pillow Book of Sei Shōnagon. (makura no sōshi) Trans. Ivan Morris. London/New York City: Penguin Books/Columbia University Press.
Senju, Hiroshi. 2006. Hiroshi Senju: Falling Color. Catalogue, Gallery Shirai.
Shinzaku Mamoru/Mori Masaki, dir. 1983, 1986. はだしのゲン Hadashi no Gen, animated film. Madhouse.
Shiraishi, Masami. 1990. Rainbows and shimmering bridges: Contemporary Japanese lacquerware. New York: Japan Society, Inc.
Smith, Lawrence. 1985. Contemporary Japanese prints: Symbols of a society in transition. New York: Icon Editions/Harper & Row.
Shigaraki Ceramic Art, ed. Soaring Voices: Contemporary Japanese Women Ceramic Artists. 2007. Ed. trans. Martie Jelinek and Darren S. Damonte. Exhibition catalogue.
Tanizaki Jun’ichiro. 1963. “The bridge of dreams.” In Seven Japanese tales, trans. Howard Hibbett. New York: Alfred A. Knopf.
Tanizaki Jun’ichiro.1933, 1977. In Praise of shadows. Translated by Thomas J. Harper and Edward Seidensticker. New Haven: Leete’s Island Books
Tansman, Alan. 2009. The aesthetics of Japanese fascism. Berkeley/Los Angeles: University of California Press.
Varley, H. Paul, and Isao Kumakura. 1989. Tea in Japan. Honolulu: University of Honolulu Press.
Washburn, Dennis C. 1995. The dilemma of the modern in Japanese fiction. New Haven: Yale University Press.
Yamasaki, Koji and Mara Miller. 2017. Ainu aesthetics and philosophy of art: Replication, remembering, recovery. In New studies in Japanese aesthetics, ed. Minh Nguyen. Lanham: Lexington Books.
Yamasaki, Koji, Masaru Kato, and Tesuya Amano (eds.). 2012. teetasinrit tekrukoci: The handprints of our ancestors: Ainu Artifacts Housed at Hokkaido University—Inherited techniques. Sapporo: Hokkaido University Museum/Hokkaido University Center for Ainu and Indigenous Studies.
Yoshida Kenkō. 1998. Essays in Idleness: The Tsurezuregusa of Kenkō (1330–1332), trans. Donald Keene, New York: Columbia University Press.
Young, James O. 2001. Art and knowledge. London/New York: Routledge.
Zañartu, Cristobal. 1996. Textile magicians: Japan, video. Paris: Rohan Arts.
Zañartu, Cristobal. 1998. Basho to spun steel. Paris: Rohan Arts.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2017 Springer International Publishing Switzerland
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Miller, M. (2017). Beauty, Religion and Tradition in Post-Nuclear Japanese Arts and Aesthetics. In: Higgins, K., Maira, S., Sikka, S. (eds) Artistic Visions and the Promise of Beauty. Sophia Studies in Cross-cultural Philosophy of Traditions and Cultures, vol 16. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-43893-1_5
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-43893-1_5
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-43891-7
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-43893-1
eBook Packages: Religion and PhilosophyPhilosophy and Religion (R0)